Approaching fiscal cliff, Grover Norquist mellows

Norquist says members of Congress have no reason to be afraid of him. | Jay Westcott/POLITICO

Boehner told reporters he disagreed with Cole. But Norquist, who is no stranger to public fights with Republicans who talk about raising taxes, called it “an interesting tactic and strategy” and would not answer Allen’s question as to whether it would violate the pledge. Cole claimed his idea would not violate the pledge.

Other Republicans, however, have been more confrontational with Norquist.

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Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said on POLITICO LIVE on Wednesday that a lifetime pledge to not raise taxes was “absolutely ridiculous.”

“We’re talking about an issue where obviously, I am opposed to tax increases as a general rule,” King said. “I mean, Ronald Reagan raised taxes a number of times because that’s what they had to do to close the deal. And if we need more revenues, I’m leaving that to the speaker of the House, John Boehner, to negotiate the best deal he can with President Obama.”

Norquist told CNN’s Piers Morgan that he hoped King’s “wife understands that commitments last a little longer than two years or something.” To which King responded that his wife would “knock [Norquist’s] head off” should she ever meet him.

But for all the fireworks and controversy surrounding his pledge, Norquist said it’s been largely successful. He pointed to the negotiations over the debt deal, which Congress reached without taxes going up.

“This is kind of a déjà vu all over again … with the debt ceiling thing. And people asked, ‘Do you want to default?’ And I said, ‘No, I want to save $2 trillion.’ Which is, by the way, what we did. And, by the way, we won that fight. We got the spending cuts and didn’t get a tax increase.”

But as cracks appear in the Republican Party, Norquist insists he’s not going anywhere.

“I have job security that most people don’t have, OK? At least the marijuana legalization people could end up out of a job in a couple of years if they win, right? But we’re always going to feel that our taxes are too high,” he said. “We had a revolution in this country when the folks in the colonies were paying between 1 [percent] and 2 percent of [gross domestic product] in taxes while the Brits were paying 20 percent — we were paying 1 [percent] to 2 percent. We said, ‘This is ridiculous. We’re out of here,’ and started shooting.”

Norquist stressed that he did not want Congress to go over the fiscal cliff but that sequestration may not be a bad thing, even though it would mean deep cuts to the Pentagon; the need to lower spending is too important and defense shouldn’t be exempt, he said.

Norquist said revenue could be generated through tax reform and economic growth. Raising taxes, he said, would not solve the country’s economic woes.